<\/p>\n
In late May, Zimbabwe\u2019s one percent gathered at a polo club on the outskirts of Harare to celebrate the marriage of one of their own.<\/p>\n
The country had never before\u00a0seen a wedding like this.\u00a0From the groom\u2019s father, a presidential advisor and US-sanctioned tycoon, the couple received $17.5 million in cash and land.<\/p>\n
From government ministers, politically connected businessmen and the sons of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the couple \u2013 Kudakwashe Tagwirei and Poneso Tinomuda Janda \u2013 were\u00a0showered with luxury cars,\u00a0rare cattle\u00a0and\u00a0hundreds of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n
The president delivered a speech, and the American R&B band Boyz II Men gave a surprise performance at the reception.<\/p>\n
Read: Pith helmets, bulging bellies and the rest of us<\/p>\n
This parade of wealth and influence, documented on state and social media, was a clear illustration of who now holds power in the southern African country.<\/p>\n
While Zimbabwe struggled with years of misrule and economic ruin under former leader Robert Mugabe, a Marxist who largely shunned business and abhorred ostentatious displays of wealth, that has changed dramatically under Mnangagwa.<\/p>\n
During his tenure, a handful of entrepreneurs have become\u00a0enormously wealthy\u00a0through government procurement programmes, access to some of the country\u2019s\u00a0most profitable mines, and generous state tenders.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s happened as the prices of\u00a0gold and platinum, two of Zimbabwe\u2019s key resources, have surged, and the country has\u00a0become a main lithium supplier to China.<\/p>\n
The \u2018new\u2019 Zanu-PF \u2026 and new laws<\/p>\n
After a months-long campaign, some of those entrepreneurs accomplished one of their\u00a0main political objectives several weeks ago when the government abolished the presidential vote and amended the law to extend 83-year-old Mnangagwa\u2019s term by two years, until 2030.<\/p>\n
Read: The mongoose and these cold, dark days<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a major change to the system \u2013 even under Mugabe, elections were always held on the dates stipulated in the constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the beginning of a one-party state,\u201d warned Stephen Chan during a talk last month.<\/p>\n
Chan, a professor of world politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, added: \u201cNot just a one-party state, but an authoritarian party state and an oligarchic party state.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
By bankrolling politicians and securing powerful positions within the governing Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF), the businessmen have also started to alter the party, which has ruled the country since it achieved independence in 1980.<\/p>\n
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Historically led by ageing struggle veterans, some now rely on what Chan calls the \u201cnew class of oligarchs\u201d for financial support.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe party needs money,\u201d he said in an interview, \u201cand\u00a0they have bought their way in.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The major players were in attendance at the wedding.<\/p>\n
Kudakwashe Tagwirei, a tycoon under US and UK sanctions for alleged corruption, formally joined Zanu-PF\u2019s leadership last year by being appointed to its top decision-making body.<\/p>\n
According to local media reports, Tagwirei gifted 300 luxury vehicles to senior party leaders during this process.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Wicknell Chivayo, a businessman whose ventures include solar power and logistics, gave expensive vehicles to opposition lawmakers who agreed to get behind scrapping presidential elections.<\/p>\n
And Scott Sakupwanya, a metals trader who was featured in an\u00a0Al Jazeera investigation into gold smuggling, is a member of parliament for Zanu-PF.<\/p>\n
\u2018Access\u2019 to the president<\/p>\n
With these moves, \u201cthey are making sure they have access\u201d to the president, said Trevor Ncube, a Zimbabwean owner of independent newspapers that are critical of the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould anything happen, they will be part of the next administration or can influence it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tagwirei, Sakupwanya and Chivayo did not answer multiple phone calls or reply to text messages seeking comment. The men have all publicly rejected allegations of corruption, describing them as\u00a0politically motivated.<\/p>\n
Read:
90 days to stop the coup on Zimbabwe\u2019s constitution
Zimbabwean president signs law extending his term by two years
Zimbabwe president says term extension decision was \u2018collective\u2019<\/p>\n
With the blessing of the senate and 280-member parliament, Mnangagwa signed the amendment to extend his term and empower parliament to select the next president on 7 July, telling the state-run press it had been a \u201ccollective\u201d decision.<\/p>\n
Just two years ago, the president forced one of Ncube\u2019s newspapers to publicly apologise for suggesting he might try to remain in power.<\/p>\n
Wilf Mbanga, the founder of the Zimbabwean, a newspaper distributed in the UK and South Africa, describes the changes as a way for the new business elite to entrench control and circumvent a vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know they can\u2019t appeal to all Zimbabweans to be elected,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why they have been pushing for the amendments.\u201d<\/p>\n
In response to queries, Zanu-PF\u2019s information secretary Chris Mutsvangwa said the term extension will stabilise the business environment and usher in \u201ca period of political and governance certainty\u201d.<\/p>\n
He dismissed suggestions that it was motivated by external factors. \u201cThe finger pointing at a few business figures is neither here nor there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2018Betrayal\u2019<\/p>\n
Before the amendments were passed, they were met with deep public resistance.<\/p>\n
Court cases and requests for a referendum were brushed aside, and human rights groups say protestors were assaulted and prevented from speaking at public hearings.<\/p>\n
The campaign has also fractured the ruling party.<\/p>\n
A prominent retired air marshall wrote to parliament in March demanding a referendum on the measures, saying the failure to hold one would be \u201ca betrayal not of us but of every Zimbabwean who hoped for a better country\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mnangagwa\u2019s vice president,\u00a0Constantino Chiwenga, criticised Tagwirei for \u201cbuying\u201d his way into the party and warned of \u201cbloodshed\u201d if the term extension went through.<\/p>\n
In an\u00a0address last year at a graveyard where many of Zimbabwe\u2019s liberation heroes are buried, he referred to the\u00a0clique of businessmen as\u00a0\u201cZvigananda\u201d \u2013 a word\u00a0whose origins come from a Shona term for blood-engorged ticks.<\/p>\n
The vice president\u00a0accused\u00a0the men of betraying the country\u2019s revolutionary values.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is tension in the country,\u201d said Ncube, the newspaper owner. Referring to Chiwenga, he added, he \u201chas got a loyal group of military people, retired commanders, who are saying this is not what we fought for\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a June\u00a0report, the International Crisis Group warned that a coup could be one possible outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risk is that Chiwenga will come to see such a gambit as the only route to reach a position he feels he is owed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chiwenga led the 2017 coup.<\/p>\n
Still, he will struggle to secure power without the party\u2019s financial backers, said Chipo Dendere, assistant professor of Africana at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vice president has openly spoken against corruption\u201d and oligarchs, she said, \u201cbut since these types hold the party purse I don\u2019t see how he can have a political career without their support.\u201d<\/p>\n
The situation echoes the waning years of Mugabe\u2019s rule, when old allies were jettisoned after a group of businessmen won favour with the ageing leader and his increasingly influential wife Grace.<\/p>\n
Mugabe removed Mnangagwa from his post as vice president in November 2017, and a coup followed a week later.<\/p>\n
Debt<\/p>\n
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At the time, Zimbabwe was deeply in debt to multilateral lenders. Its economy provided little formal employment, and waves of Zimbabweans were emigrating to South Africa and the UK.<\/p>\n
On taking power, the new president promised a revival and return to the global economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cMnangagwa spent years presenting himself as a reformer who had broken with the Mugabe era, and was committed to international re-engagement,\u201d said Zaynab Hoosen, a senior Africa analyst at intelligence advisory agency Pangea Risk.<\/p>\n
But nine years on, that still hasn\u2019t happened.<\/p>\n
Despite a booming lithium industry, record tobacco production and the\u00a0surge in gold and platinum prices, Zimbabwe remains in default to international lenders.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been in arrears for 26 years, and a quarter of its population has left.<\/p>\n
For now, the country\u2019s relationships with external creditors remain frozen.<\/p>\n
The World Bank, African Development Bank, European Investment Bank and Paris Club, which have loaned to Zimbabwe in the past, are precluded from extending more credit until previous debts have been paid. Unlocking access to credit is also contingent on enacting democratic reforms.<\/p>\n
The recent amendments could make the country even more of an international pariah and deepen its economic crisis, said Hoosen.<\/p>\n
\u201cPolitical and governance reforms are an explicit part of Zimbabwe\u2019s dialogue with creditors.\u201d<\/p>\n
At home, the brazen intermingling of money and politics is likely to add to ordinary Zimbabweans\u2019 disillusionment with democracy.<\/p>\n
Since 2000, every election has been marred by allegations of voter intimidation and fraud.<\/p>\n
Read:
Zimbabwe\u2019s untouchables: A signature, a bribe and a blind eye
Helping hands, and hands that just keep taking in Zimbabwe
Rule of law or rule of men?<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was never like this in the past,\u201d said Tinei, a construction worker in Harare who asked that his surname not be used. \u201cBut maybe times are changing very fast. I guess it pays to be in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
#runs #Zimbabwe #20m #wedding #holds #answer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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